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TWO TIE IN
2009 ABSOLUTE
Five victories
and seven draws were scored by our two 2009 Absolute Champions. For both
men this was their first attempt at scaling the Absolute peak, and obviously
very successful.

A remarkable
three (!) other players were also undefeated, though they did not win as many
games. Abe Wilson won four games to finish third. Ted Brandhorst
and John Ballow each won two games to tie for fifth and sixth.

Special sporting
mention must be made for last year's champion, Ciaran O'Hare, who despite
losing two games (both losses to our new champions) finished all alone in
fourth place, only a point out of first.

David Sogin: David was born in Chicago in
1954. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from Louisiana
State and a Ph. D. from the University of Texas. On the faculty of the
University of Kentucky, he has been a member of the Lexington Philharmonic for
twenty-four years.

David notes he
would like to play like Tal, but his style is more like Petrosian and Karpov.

GAME OF THE
MONTH
A difficult
opening produces an endgame where Black's Rook and Pawns dominate White's two
Knights.

The
a-Pawn will hold White's Knights while Black mops up the kingside.GAME
OF THE MONTH (Part 2)

Gary
Walters, a civil
litigator in Cleveland, Ohio, began cc play in the mid-nineties, but a military
career ended his postal play. He returned to CC in 2007 with a passion
with over 200 cc games in the last two years. Gary is also hopeful that
the USCF will ultimately provide its own web server for cc play.

KING'S
INDIAN DEFENSE (E97)

1.c4
Nf6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.b4
The
Bayonet Attack has been a knife in the side of the King's Indian for some time,
but new methods of handling it have appeared lately. 9...Nh5
10.Re1
This
is one of the latest tries for an advantage. 10...f5
11.Ng5 Nf6 12.f3
White
has been mildly successful with 12. Bf3 += 12...Kh8
13.Rb1 Nh5
Klausen-Andersen,
Norwegian Team CC 2008 drove the Knight deep by an immediate 13...h6 14. Ne6
Bxe6 15. dxe6 fxe6 16. fxe4 Nc6 17. Nd5 Ng8 and was drawn shortly. 14.
c5 Nf4 15.Bc4 fxe4
After
this, White anchors a Knight on e4 and does not have to risk a possible Pawn
sacrifice on e6. On e4 the Knight supports the queenside attack, pressure
the center on d6, and slows down Black's kingside attack. White is better += 16.Ngxe4
Nf5 17.g3!?
White
has to calculate carefully here as Black's kingside pressure can become very
dangerous very quickly. 17...Nh3+
18.Kg2 Qe7 19.Rf1 g5 20.Be2 a6
Black
is stymied by White's centralized pieces, and now White starts his own assault.
21.cxd6
cxd6 22.b5 axb5
No
better was 22...a5 23. b6 23.Nxb5
Rxa2 24.g4!
After this,
White's King is safe and the Black center collapses. 24...Nf4+
25.Bxf4 Nh4+ 26.Kh1 exf4 27.Nbxd6 Bd7
What
else ? If 27...h5 28. Nxc8 Rxc8 29. d6 breaks through. 28.Rxb7
Rfa8 29.Nc4 h6 30.d6 Qe8 31.Nb6 Ra1 32.Nxa8!
White
gets too much for his Queen. 32...Rxd1
33.Rxd1 1-0

Quote: Correspondence games are a rich source
for discovering new and important opening ideas for OTB players, as these games
are generally very thoroughly researched and analyzed by the players involved
-- John Emms

2009
Absolute Tournament

1

Sogin, David

2280

½

½

1

½

½

½

1

1

½

1

½

1

8.5

2

Walters, Gary

2303

½

½

1

½

½

½

½

½

1

1

1

1

8.5

3

Wilson, Abe

2338

½

½

½

½

½

½

1

1

½

1

½

1

8

4

O'Hare, Ciaran

2442

0

0

½

½

½

1

½

½

1

1

1

1

7.5

5

Brandhorst, Wesley.

2442

½

½

½

½

½

½

½

½

½

1

½

1

7

6

Ballow, John

2243

½

½

½

½

½

½

½

½

½

½

1

1

7

7

Van Enk, Steven

2466

½

½

½

0

½

½

½

½

½

½

1

1

6.5

FAIRBAIRN TOPS 08C24

With an undefeated 5 ½-½ score, Steven Fairbairn of Toronto, Canada, took first place in the forfeit-marred 2008 John Collins 08C24.
Fairbairn
writes of this game, "I'm not sure if White's 28th was a notational
error or a desperate sacrifice although at that point the game was already won
in any event".

MODERN
DEFENSE (B08)

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MARCH
RESULTSJohn
Collins
Steve
Fairbairn 08C24 5
½-½

James
Ward
07C40 4-2

Frank
Spooner 07C40
4-2

Paul
Ott
08C21 6-0
The
passed Pawn is a criminal who must be kept under lock and key -- Nimzovitsch

Trap
- counter trap -
counter-counter
trap

STONEWALL
ATTACK (A40)

Black's
pieces just seem to cover more squares in every phase of this game.

QUEEN
PAWN OPENING (A40)

Brandhorst
follows a pursue and destroy policy, relentlessly tracking down the opponent's
pieces and exchanging them to move square by square closer to a winning ending.